“The threat from Isis is not over. It will take a different shape and I won’t be surprised if we start to see an alliance between Isis and al-Qaida in different areas in the Middle East. Al-Qaida is thinking in long-term strategy. They’re building alliances. Al-Qaida is stronger today than they were before 9/11. They are focusing locally, but even if a small portion of these guys decides to go global again I think we’re going to have a big problem.”

Ali Soufan — Former FBI agent (June 2018)

“The speech supposedly had been prepared in the White House and the NSC. But when we were given what had been prepared, it was totally inadequate, and we couldn’t track anything in it. And when I asked Condi Rice, the national security adviser, ‘Where did this come from?’, it turns out the vice president’s office had written it.”

Colin Powell — Secretary of State (2001-2005)

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

In a decade-long campaign to change the course of world history through extreme acts of violence, ISIS has been called the most dangerous terrorist group in history. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

On June 11 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq forces seized control of government offices and other important buildings in the northern city of Mosul.

FRONTLINE traces the growth of The Islamic State in The Secret History of ISIS, while also investigating the repeated warnings of the threat by senior global policymakers.

“Starting with the Bush Administration’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, followed by the growth of the insurgency during the Iraqi occupation, the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the eventual rise of the Islamic State, the story of the war on terror feels familiar fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks.

However, what few know is that the American government, under two presidents, allowed and even contributed to the growth of a radical and violent terrorist group that has now achieved more than even Bin Laden could have imagined.

The Secret History of ISIS reveals how two terrorist leaders—Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—created and executed an ingenious plan to build a radical terrorist caliphate while senior American policymakers ignored repeated warnings about what was happening.

Drawing on interviews with senior officials, newly uncovered documents, audio recordings and jihadist videos, the film asks why the American government did not recognize the threat in time to effectively counter what would become a deadly challenge to global security.”

The Secret History of ISIS

“The Islamic State group’s earliest plans, Islamic radicals who serve as its leaders and how the U.S. missed the many warning signs and failed to stop its rise to power.”